Topics discussed include: correspondence with other physicists, such as Max Born, Max von Laue, Werner Heisenberg, and Carl Friedrich Weizsacker; Herneck's studying of relativity with Philip Frank; and geophysics and the history of science existing in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Friedrich Herneck: Professor at Berlin's Humboldt Universitat, an author of numerous books and articles about physicists including Einstein and Ernst Mach, as a historian and philosopher of science he engaged physicists of his generation in extensive correspondence.